trafficking every day. that the traffickers including women who have made their way and children may look to prey upon vulnerable people who over longer period of time may have lost some hope or may have very gullible for an offer to go to saudi arabia or to korea or somewhere else in the philippines for what look like a real job but turns out to be -- to a hell on earth. which would be a trafficking situation. ..

were very seriously damaged. and i'm wondering what the plans are to ensure that these women, especially the final three months of pregnant heat, get close to birth of their children, will there be an effort to ensure they are safe blood and be skilled birth attendant to the can save her life if she needs a c-section or some other help to help mother and baby. i would not parenthetically that

my daughter-in-law. my wife and i are grandparents have three grandchildren. just in july, and a princeton hospital had an emergency c-section, lost two liters plus a load and they had to send out for some of it because they didn't have her blood type. they had some, but not enough. in a ravaged area we visited them you've visited as well as the health clinics that are working, that could mean death to a woman were availability of safe blood could mean life. so if you could address that. finally, the issue of best practices learned from the earthquake in haiti and the synonymy in the indian ocean. i was on the abraham lincoln briefly with a group of members. we went to but not cheat during the synonymy. the deployment of the aircraft carrier was like a pivot, and anchor for relief efforts during

the emergency phase. what other best practices to and learned they are being applied a result of the typhoon? >> you've raised a lot of the critical issues. so first on debris. it's amazing. i mean, ever mess me up snow banks growing up in minnesota where they tower over you. this is a critical issue. the government of philippines has a salvage first policy. he may have seen the slow people already starting to pick through what is reusable versus what needs to be put into a landfill. we are taking this into account in designing our transitional shelter programs and also incorporating will be called cash for work as a part of our program working with our u.n. and ngo partners who have a lot of skill addicts. doing programs that basically provide a decent wage in return

for clearing debris away. this would be a huge challenge, an important challenge. unfortunately or fortunately, the philippines have a fair amount of experience in dealing with debris. it is a scale issue in this sense and will be an area of the media focus has been lookahead. you've raised some of the other associated concerns about disease with debris and for that reason, the fogginess a very important approach because there's standing water. the other issue of coors is there still pulling bodies out from underneath these mountains of debris and that will likely remain an ongoing effort as they work their way through the recovery. i'm trafficking, this has been an area of concern in the philippines for some time. in fact, the united states has put about $11 million into

counter trafficking programming in the philippines. we work closely with them and called the philippines interagency council for counter trafficking. there is a need to remain very vigilant about the possibility of increased trafficking whenever you have a major disaster like this and people are nearly vulnerable. there's the potential potential for increased trafficking. for that reason, we are watching this very closely, working with the local partners, who we work with all the time and looking to see where and if and how we need to in greece programming. he had in the philippines. we are talking closely, working with our partners. thank you for your support on that. on the pregnant women, you know, the whole issue is critical not just for pregnant women, but the immunization would have to go forward.

so that is the priority pushing who, government of the philippines and unicef. we provided support for that ticket to chain back and up and running so you can bring forward critical medicines including blood. their rate by 184 medical teams on the ground. it's been a fairly robust international response to try to fill the devastating gap that the storm created. they are now operating in the effect that areas, working to reestablish this critical facilities. also importantly was the early evacuation. i mentioned i wrote it on a c-130. our u.s. military c-130 as they carry supplies and some of the kerry people out. about 12,000 people were evacuated in the hope is that those who need that kind of specialized assistance, including some of the more complicated births are able to get out.

finally, in terms of best practices, i think there a lot of import best practices we took forward from past disasters. they really resulted in a close in the very effect this collaboration between usaid and dod. we were able, because of the work we've done together previously, very quickly stand up to prioritize the most important lifesaving supply to go forward. one of the things that happened in haiti is that there was a clogging of supplies they went through the system and sometimes not the most important supplies went first. so this seamless collaboration that was the hallmark of this effort really grew out of lessons from haiti. >> not to make light, but it did bring up fogging everywhere we went in pointed out when i was

seven, eight years old come without any parental notification or consent, my friends and i used to follow a fog or in new jersey and on our bikes. the ability to reduce the impact of the mosquito effect to that are looming and the attending risks. risk versus the benefit of stopping several epidemics from bursting out. so happy to hear that because i've never seen anything mccauley, mr. green and mr. franks would agree of never seeing the ending water putrefying but we saw as a result of the typhoon, which is a breeding ground for disease. >> someone also followed the fogging trucks. in fact, there is a great

concern about not just trying to address the standing water, but also to revitalize the surveillance system, the health surveillance system because one of the concerns is in the wake of the storm is we need to quickly have the ability to identify where you have an outbreak so you can get the fast treatment. it is really close to actions, and their surveillance systems and are bent to fogging underway. >> can you mix of much. >> thank you, mr. chairman. icann thank you for your leadership. it has been tailored. i would like to follow up on what thing that you mentioned this lindborg about the filipino community and the diaspora. in houston, texas we have about 89,000 filipinos. i will tell you that the community has organized in the

community has raised but i think is a fairly handsome sum of money that has been sent to the filipino community of coors sent to the philippines. i am honored to tell you that my community is on board with the effort. i had the opportunity to go to pakistan after the earthquake and i saw the communities that were flattened. homes just love old. i went to sri lanka after the tsunami and i saw a train railcar has been lifted away from the tracks and some long distance away. went to haiti after the earthquake and saw the devastation that took place there and there's the group work

to be done in haiti. i was born there, so i went to new orleans and saw the devastation that took place. in my humble opinion, what i saw in the philippines rivals all of these others. it is right they are with the great disasters of my time. my hope is he will continue to do what you are doing. dr. king reminds us the universe is long. however, we have to note that it doesn't do it on its own coalition. it says that because it people who will go into harms way to try to help others in their times of need. i thank you for what you're doing and i trust usaid will continue to be a great servant that has been. i want to talk about the

business community for a moment. i had the preeminent privilege of meeting with some of the leading citizens who were at the head of major corporations. we talked rather extensively about the largest and land yet. their monies they have that they can accord in a crisis, that they can share in a crisis. i think they have stepped up to the plate. they are making plans to do more. one of the things we talked about with schools. as you know, the infrastructure has been destroyed. approximately 90% of the infrastructure for schools destroyed. children are without what they would normally do and that is be in the classroom. these dismissed leaders indicated a willingness to be of assistance to help the schools.

i hope is there a piece of coordinated effort between the business community and the ngos, government, all the parties involved to help children. i'm concerned about people in the dawn of life in the toilet of life. our children are precious commodity in the hope is we will do some things to help them with their education. the senior citizens, persons who are not able to take care of themselves to the extent you and i can take care of ourselves, i would like it if you'd comment on efforts made to help them comment on the efforts to help reestablish schools as quickly as possible. she indicated the number one concern to shelter.

this was the case of coors in louisiana after katrina, shelter is a great importance. as well as in sri lanka. i know we have a lot of experience dealing the shelter after these tragic events. i also know what is true about them being in harms way to this very day because the hurricane season -- well, the typhoon season for them, which is the zenith at apex of the month of december. so there may be something else living on the right. their number one need to shelter. if you'd comment on the shelter issue. one additional comment and complement with reference to the ability to move 800,000 people, that is remarkable.

it is no small feat in to do this at the limited amount of time speaks well of the coordinated effort that it took to get it done. i know you've mentioned it in if you want to say more about how that was accomplished, i'll be honored to hear. thank you, mr. chairman. i will await the lady's answers. >> my apologies for coffee. sorry. that's an amazing set of places that you visited in the scene in each instance the awesome power these natural events have to disrupt and to destroy it. to address your issues, i'm a first of all on-air community for their ability, their commitment to mobilize and the

fact they focus also on racing cash. one of our major messages has been to the american people who want to provide assistance is to focus on cash at the fast and most effective means to help in the philippines. also, we do have easter the richer office for kicking a particular rep dates of interest, specifically or especially to the diaspora. we'll be sure to get that to you. on the private sector, this is an incredible and important part of the response, both the private business sector and the american public. we see how those contributions are a very important and quite large portion of the reconstruction effort. both the immediate and longer-term returns to action. we have in a idea special working group was set up specifically to look at how to

bring forward those partnerships. i know that a number of ngos are also quite experienced and committed to partnering with the dirt. i think lucy a lot a lot of this effort going forward. schools are essential. it's part of getting a sense of normalcy back in to people's lives. even temporary schools, syria pull to help children focus on the future instead of their loss. children are amazingly resilient. it's important to have the opportunity not to lose out on critical schooling years. that is a part of the infrastructure. that is one of the largest priorities. you quite rightly raise shelter, both as a priority in one of the areas that is always one of the most challenging after these storms. we've learned a lot i think in

terms of the importance of providing transitional shelter because people very quickly into the kind of shelter that can withstand additional weather events, understanding that may be a while for the permanent shelter solutions to fully come on stream. we saw this evening katrina as you noted after katrina. you know, the other challenge is there is often a desire to look at policies that help citizens not rebuild in areas that are at greatest risk. these are the tough policy decision that often takes a while for a government to responsibly work through to a solution. our strategy was to first of all provide a life-saving shelter material pit that got people of the elements. we have our shelter expert on the ground now to work on transitional shelter programs.

we will be very supportive but particularly the issue of ensuring their peoples rights respected as we look forward to the longer-term shelter solutions that will take a while to come forward. >> does let me conclude before going to a second panel. craig said kenneth lee visited joseph butchart, mostly antitrafficking path offered to get the boca around designated as a foreign terrorist association. while we were there, we did visit with ngos, including a bishop named shows who have lost 10 aid for aids orphans. it raises a serious question that i've been asking for 30

years. more than 30 years. that is the robust inclusion of faith-based organizations, which i believe, whether we are combating being sick hiv/aids, the program mayor or malaria, tuberculosis are doing relief operations in a tie for another natural disaster. the efficacy of the operation is enhanced with faith based operations are robustly concluded. the multiplier effect is incalculable and i've seen it over and over again. what i found in nigeria was only 9% -- there is 90% not, particularly when the health care grid is primarily faith-based, we are getting induced not disconcerting to me. kept in the services getting support. we salima to the transfer creation church, a matter fact come a week before that i

understand cardinal mccarrick had celebrated mass there and we received communion while we were there. it was a church with babe ruth completely blown off and had been completely rehabbed and unfortunately will have to be so again. i encourage you to realize every dollar spent there does get multiplied because of the unbelievable commitment that has nothing to do with money and everything to do with service for service they, but also the multiplier effect of the volunteers included in the operation. if you could take that back or if you want to respond. the recovery must be sustainable and know you have friends and advocates here. it is bipartisan. mr. green, mr. frank, all this i believe if we doesn't mean it's your folks on the ground say the cash for the work needs an additional push for this or that, let us know.

we can't guarantee results, but we can try to increase the capabilities he will then help on the ground to help the people who've been ravaged by this storm. yes. >> well, to your first point, amen. we have a lot of -- we have a lot of really importune, wonderful faith-based partners and we are seeing especially homeport madison philippines at the network of churches they have. i was on a call that phase space community members across the country last week talking about the philippines responds in hearing about all the efforts happening in this country that support both the relief and recovery efforts. so absolutely agree with you that is an important part of the landscape.

some of our most valued partners, including the two coming up next. on the offer to help us keep sustained attention on this, i very much thank you for that and i would welcome the opportunity to take you up on that offer. we see all too often after the cameras go away that these kind of responses falloff the page and people move on to other issues. we will be there with their teams, with their funding and programs and we welcome the partnership in helping to keep the spotlight on the sustained effort. again, i cannot think chairman smith, congressman green and the rest of your subcommittee for the continued focus and support for these kinds of critical efforts. >> i would just add that if that sentiment could be shared with the health minister and others

without meeting with him. it was a coup as a foreign idea to him. i asked him to look into it, he said he would. they don't include faith-based organizations in those things be fun. mr. green wanted to make a comment. >> yes, sir. thank you, mr. chairman. i also want to thank mr. bass again for allowing me to be here. i want to add an amen if i made to what you said about the faith-based initiative. they not only help after a disaster, but also before. i had seen evidence of it because they know what the vulnerable hour. they know where the help is needed. they are intimately familiar with the people in the neighborhood and they can do an awful lot with the evacuation process. when people have to shelter in place, and that is usually what you finally hear from a shelter in place.

there's no more we can do, given the hurricane, in our case, or the typhoon is so near and that we have to just stay where we are. when that happens, it is peace institutions, the state-based institutions that are still there. we leave, but they write these things out. as soon as it's over, they know exactly where to go to render the most aid. i would just like to give my compliments to you for bringing that up. >> thank you, mr. green. the concern we have about the bias against ms well-founded. after super storm sandy, i offered a bill that passed 354 -- 352 to 74. totally bipartisan about it provided funding for houses of worship, many who are the

front-line defense in terms of humanitarian aid in new york and new jersey ravaged by super storm sandy. the bill passed. fema opposes it. the senate has opposed it and refuses to even bring it up for a vote. i can't tell you have disappointed and outrageously wrong i think those who were first and foremost in the relief side, being told you're not going to get fema relief. there's a separation of church and date issued. they can do all kinds of other things, but they can't get the critical fema support. that bias, which i know you don't share needs to be guarded against because that first line of defense is so important. mr. green and i would be in agreement. the more you can help out in that regard, the better. thank you. i'd like to now welcome our second panel began with mr. shawn callahan, chief operating officer for catholic relief services. he's also served as executive

vice president for overseas operations and regional director for south asia and catholic relief services. he's the crs regional response to flood, drought, earthquake a mistake on a man-made emergencies in south asia. his time working with the service is coming is to experience a terrorist attack at a sri lankan airport worked closely with mother teresa and the missionaries of charity in calcutta at work on programming in afghanistan during and after the taliban. without objection, his faux resume as well as our next witness will be part of the record. i'd like to introduce mr. chris bluesky, a humanitarian professional with 15 years of international relief development and fundraising experience. during that time, he served on a wide range of emergency responses, assisting with natural disasters and complex unitarian emergencies. his work in hotspots increases

for a majority of china's humanitarian specialists, including kosovo, afghanistan, sri lanka, pakistan, sudan, burma, lebanon and bali. mr. palis gave had served in senior leadership positions with other humanitarian organizations putting care, samaritan's purse and world relief. mr. callahan, the floor is yours. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i appreciate the fact you were holding the session along with ranking member bass on the other subcommittee members and certainly represented green. before going, i'll going to summarize my comments. i asked the written testimony be added and for the record. first, i thank you very much for this opportunity to speak. i want to weekend think both of you and mr. frank says well for participating in the trip out

for crs is able to participate in hosting you as well. these strips are not only important for the stewardship of the resources the u.s. is committing them to generate energy, but also a trip that shows the compassion of the u.s. we found when we were there and we arrived a week after the disaster as you stated earlier, iraq is cardinal mccarrick. the outpouring from the filipino people and that thanks to the united states is really overwhelming. anyplace that event, people came out of their way to think the united states for that commitment and support those provided at that time. i think that type of recognition really show some thing of the filipino people. it also is something the united states should be very, very proud of. i want to reflect as well because the comments here earlier about the type of response that occurred and just to quickly summarize the united

states, the u.n. and the local organizations, putting the filipino government, really did an outstanding job as has been articulated before. from our point of view, it was a rapid response on the ground. we have a presence in the philippines of over 100 staff working with local society. the church organization. the people in the sites a day after the disaster occurred and the response was immediate. i would also highlight from the previous presenter, nancy lindborg at the usaid was very forthright and ticket manage to communicate directly to faith-based organizations to catholic relief services to let us know if we needed any assistance at all during this process to get in touch with them. ahead of os ea and deputy took preemptive calls to us to say things don't go fast, if you're having anything be blocked out

that they would assist in moving forward. they said that's not only a team on the ground in the philippines, but they also set up a special emergency coordination unit here in washington. i will say they were wonderful, including on the ground. i know she traveled with you, but you should direct your come up mauricio that with us as well during our visit there and she was supportive of the efforts we have come a new of the provided and was looking forward to assistance of long-term. i will say that was very positive. the u.n. as well use whatever shelter models of the cluster key model into the future. the u.n. is thought that time, particularly unicef and osha are particularly strong right out of the gate. i would just reiterate this type of the dvds. i would also say as he spoke

about the misrepresentative green mentioned, you sound like we've been in the same areas in pakistan and tsunami penalties stiffer and emergencies emergencies a sitcom for that i think there's been a lot of learning that has gone on. frankly this nominee was the first time we really worked closely with the american military setting up temporary bridges to get to violence and locations that were completely transfigured as the geography had changed. in haiti as well, the military came up in the philippines. i know in haiti the u.s. military tried to do with a lighter footprint, with a letter president never going in providing assistance. in the philippines from a came in, there is joy for most of the people we talked to roll around. it is very, very impressive. even in the media outlets, the fact we had an aircraft area and was seen as bringing assistance back and forth, it was seen as assisting countries and capacity

was impressive at that time. so from on the ground, people frankly were questioning their own governments. on this question in the u.s. resolve to provide assistance. so i will say that. s.,.com is all about the aspirin the united states, we've had much are reaching for the ds for providing assistance to this case. we raised over 15 million in private contributions to the catholic church as the united states has initiated a national collection, which resources were coming. solidarity of the american people has been up most. in addition to that, s-sierra s. is a member of an international organization. that group came together and we had an international meeting in the philippines with their local church partners. i'd be remiss if i didn't talk a little bit about her local church partners. it's responded to this disaster cardinal mccarrick and i were there week after the disaster that he celebrated mass in the

cathedral without a roof in the rain at that time. it's not only the material assistance we are seeing in the united states, but the spiritual. it is that solidarity. as representative green appropriately said, is that kinship. after the mass, people coming up who can celebrate frankly with two archbishops for the philippines, who were so taken at an american cardinal at combat the archbishop is fit to travel to the location where he'd been stationed before and the archbishop apollo was also present at the time. archbishop john do. we also met with the cardinal and manila who is organizing a day of prayer for the people in the philippines in raising assistance as well there. when we talk about assistance coming to notice in the crs report, we don't mention crs is

focusing on food assistance. the reason is the local catholic church was focusing on food assistance. we were providing a shelter, water sanitation, but the local church was twinning with local parishes that did not get devastated by the super cyclone. they actually provided assistance to various dioceses. so nasa, the individual dioceses in the philippines are reaching out. as mr. franks also mentioned, the solidarity of the resiliency, strength of the filipino people after being through such disaster. i will say after this massive cardinal mccarrick of the weird journalists and others in tears after this if they were struggling to find family members says we were going by, as they buried people. people at the side of the road. it was a very emotional time, but the church was there immediately.

when we arrived essay the cathedral you mentioned, we were greeted by a young man of biking shorts and a t-shirt. turns out he was the monsignor of the chapel. the only way he could get around to find out who is missing and connect with different people is to write on a bicycle. they were going around the island trying to locate people by bicycle, register people come and tell people aftermath crs would be there to provide distributions and register people. right away they are setting up yemeni systems on the ground, locating people and identify ms. mr. green mentioned earlier, the most vulnerable people in the community to make sure they were assisted. he apologized to the cardinal and the way he was dressed in the cardinal when nothing gave him a big hug. it was a very wonderful woman as we saw that type of church response and solidarity that will continue in. the holy father has also spoken of that as well. i will say the immediate response has been mentioned in

misrepresentative green mentioned, we have focused on the shelter and getting now. we've assisted 16,000 families. over 80,000 people. but we were out there, people were an open-air and it was raining on them. even our aid workers. one of them turned to the archbishop and said archbishop, have you ever slept in your office? the archbishop looked at him and said what is your last? because now. it was the type of thing were afterwards joining together. even church structures people are were around the walls because many were subindustry. we are looking to the future. the church has said it wants to rebuild it institutions, but the people come first. so they're looking at how to help the people get the necessary shelter. the archbishop apollo mentioned 72 out of 74 churches have lost their roots. they are still sheltering people in those facilities.

his personal hospital minutes he looks like it was hit by a bomb. the floors are slanted now. everything completely ruined. he wasn't there trying to recover his possessions. he was getting assistance and aid out there. the church has been stronger. you've also talked about the issue of protection. we've been focused on sheltering in place. the reason why we focus on sheltering in place is a design we have is using these very solid tarps for protection, but also the recovery of debris so they can use that in the rebuilding of their homes. the sheltering in place is another way we find providing protection for people, particularly women, children and elderly severe transit to a camp where they might be more vulnerable. sheltering in locations where they're part of the community come with the church can continue to keep touch with them, where they come back and forth to the church. we see that is one way and

apollo talk with mom as presenting issues of trafficking and violence against children and women. we are also working closely with the local government, department of social welfare in those areas to make sure those people stay safe. our second focus area has been modern sanitation, suit and looking a wash. we've got ladders and communities that don't have access. we been accessing and trying to provide greater access to the water facility, which is coordinated. our water engineers save over chlorinated at this time. like the cloud fogging tracks, it's better to have over coronation. in the watch area, we are also focusing on protection they are in that we are separating facilities for men and women here we found this in haiti in the camps as well do we need to make sure there is a separation between jabber facilities in bathroom facilities for men and women and children so they were protected at the time with

adequate lighting, which has been a problem in a serious, but we've been providing hygiene kits to people so women cannot flashlights and are organizing a buddy system so individuals don't go alone and are an open-air, the areas they can be somewhat protected. we've received some cash for work and cleaning debris in various areas in trying to be used to brion moss at the coconut knocked out. it is a key area we are looking up for rebuilding and preventing epidemics as nancy lindborg mentioned earlier. in addition, we are looking for the follow-up. as we look at longer-term, we are looking a shelter for the longer-term. the thing that better assailant in haiti and durable solutions, one of the key problems we think will run into as this comes down to slam titles, whose property is set. most people have lost everything

and so we are supposing at the start this rebuilding process there's going to be many people that have no title ii the land, no historical memory and that will be a key issue. we also look at livelihood. many people there as you know also harvested coconuts. 50% of the coconut harvest is completely lost. those trees take five years to rebuild. we are trying to generate in the emergency phase opportunities for livelihood so people can, you know, regenerate isolated. i just say it's too late to to the future, our recommendations for you to commend yourselves another act is that the u.s. government and military for a tremendous first step in the response. it has been fantastic and i appreciate the fact that not only at the emergency response, but the future but there continue to be going the ongoing

funding for the relief. we need to focus on that as we move into the future. showing solidarity at the time where we are in the holiday season and being thankful for the things in this country and come into christmas, a very big holiday in the philippines. many people will be without that. as you rightly said, many people and children because there are no schools have been sent to a stern family structure. there is concern we have another side that that is probably more for an opportunity for children and women to be to be lost, be traffic or exploited. we look at ways the church shares information from one diocese to another, where people are coming and make sure they check in. we do find education is a key way of protecting children. if you get children into school, it's a daily mechanism for teachers and outside people check are they withdrawing?

are they fed properly? do they need other things? behind the greatest protection is to make sure the schooling us back and get kids back in school. whether they are moving to family site for schools and apollo would be key for the future. but the support for recovery phase, shelter is going to be a key area. we were lucky the church actors have been trained in disaster risk reduction. they knew how to register, how to do triage in certain areas. we need to continue processes is philippines continue to be hit by bigger and bigger storms would need to focus on the science of communities. i would also propose we strengthen the emergency response capacity of the local mission. i know ms. steele has been strong the development aspect of supportive of the construction efforts that have gone there. i don't think they have the team and staff to respond to a three

to five-year effort that's going to be there and i would say we look at mechanisms to assist her in her step in responding over the longer-term in assisting filipinas and developing. i will say it has been mentioned before, the filipino community has been quick to respond. it varies billion, very proud people and caring people and the government now is winding up in moving forward. recent leadership from the u.s., which i think they would welcome, they would be positioned well for the future. thank you. >> thank you so very much for the tremendous job catholic relief services is doing. we were fully briefed by joe curry while we were there and tom o'reilly took his bitterly around. we got to see the operation upfront and was extremely impressed. thank you for your leadership, for briefing us before we left. i did a great fan of world

vision my entire life. >> i have a written statement. before this i want to see thank you. i've never been part of one of these events before and i'm amazed to see everyone come together and be across panel or however you describe it, to support across the congress. it's great to see people come together in something we do focus on not just the

when navarrette wherever disasters occur. i will not see a few more words about a recommendation. protection is focusing on safety, dignity and rights of people impacted by disaster. the october 2012 guidelines for proposals of the usaid requires that proposals must demonstrate protection mainstream in all sectors of the programs. our potential partners must

integrate throughout their funded programs regardless of sector. it is important for usaid to ensure these guidelines are followed for the start of the program to the end. maximizing integration will maximize protection for specially vulnerable people. it will also minimize difficulties in cost-benefit integration protection retroactively. prior to engaging in collaborating with people impacted by the disaster should be identifying assistance and protection needs and ensuring they are not. they're mean for participation in all stages including assessments, design, implementation and monitoring is essential to the success of the program and can prevent harm. we want to make sure we are not doing programs to people, but programs with people and we want to urge the u.s. government to ensure that it's happening across the board. in disasters, children are often the service because a separation from family, disease and other threats. there are numerous ways to

reduce this risk, including prioritizing opportunities for adults to a living from supporting comprehensive registration of children coupled with symmetries the reunification efforts commensurate children have safe places to play, and recover. monitor an increase in explicit images of filipino online and on sky. restoring schools, increasing training for national police and other security personnel and minimum standards for child protection. strengthening existing formal and informal chat protection mechanisms at the community and local government levels. and finally, prioritizing clean water, proper sanitation, hygiene education to preventing or responding to disease outbreaks. basically what we do together right now is the front-line response. we want to make sure people are safe, people have access to basic services and this continues on through an evolution. women and girls would potentially be at less risk, especially in evacuation centers

of comprehensive plan to improve security for revenue growth is developed and implemented with cooperation of national police and other security services. opportunities for women to earn a living, especially those in households are essential for protections for abuse and exploitation. the context for recommendations include the typhoons disrupting sources of income for over 5.6 million men and women. i read that this morning i didn't realize how many people had lost sources of income. i beg you looking at a million, 2 million people. this morning it was 5.6 million women and children for women and men. it was astounding. the filipino department of health are warning several diseases are becoming huge public health threats as a result of the typhoon. in addition to the health risks, ngos including world vision, multilateral institutions and the ilo have identified the effect to providences in the

philippines as having 3 million children engaged in child labor. when economic opportunities for adults decrease, the health challenges arise in the risk of children abused and exploited often increases. i've can find most of my time to share recommendations in context for them. congressional oversight, this is important for you guys, and engagement is an important part of the response to disasters and although she per transaction. during the question-and-answer period i would be glad to unpack recommendations and give examples. details are written in my written testimony. mr. chairman, thank you for leadership in this opportunity. i welcome questions and those are the numbers that subcommittee. >> mr. bluesky, without objection or full state will be made part of the record. just a few opening questions. mr. callahan, both of you really, one of the things we

noticed from questions are raised here with schools may not open for months. this may be the end of the school year. as you pointed out, schooling not only provides educational challenges to the child, but it also serves as a place for protection. it also can be a way of observing whether or not some ptsd and other problems might be manifesting, which could very well. we met with the man, who is the same man that carried the 3-year-old dead little girl, who just broke down. he said that at night if you really listen, you can hear the cheers of young children who get scared very easily but if there's a thunderstorm or some other, another typhoon. very much on the edge. i think your point, about a

three to five-year recovery, we need to look at that, working with them to make sure there is a broader horizon as to how sustainable recovery efforts would be. if you could elaborate on the ptsd issue. secondly, the risks to relief workers and health teams. one of the usaid leaders but not with told me when we were talking about the fever that he had it. he said i had malaria six times. from our work, my work in africa and elsewhere, so often the case of the health work hours and relief teams or they have experienced many diseases. and with a possibility of an epidemic manifesting very shortly. it does raise questions to their health concerns as well. not only do they do so much to

help others, they themselves become sick. i'll never forget on a visit to comment camp and therefore, mr. saint kitts and i met with the director who were shaking. he had malaria. they said go lay down. we contact to someone else. he says no, it's my job. just an extraordinary, just courage on behalf of others. so i'm worried about the health workers if you could speak to that. the cash for work, how long, mr. callahan, you map a transitive do a vision that occurring. your point is well taken but the coconut trees. they do take five to seven years to revitalize the industry. what will the people do? are there some viable livelihoods for those 5.6 million people who have lost their livelihoods as mr. palusky just said he had on the traffic inside, do you think were doing

enough? now is that the greatest risk arises. the parish i.t. is a good one. i've not heard that. finally on the issue about the pregnant women who will need a safe venue to deliver their children, is it time for a blood drive, perhaps by the diocese, you know, around the area? if the blood is not available, women will die in a solid necessary. we need to prioritize that as well. >> may be to jump on and i appreciate your comment to the risk of the workers. one of the things we try to do right away his nature they have an adequate place to stay. there is a look at trying to get some containers and spaces for some of the relief workers to stay. we been very fortunate people volunteer to be there during the thanksgiving holiday season and we've got the next trip going in

to celebrate christmas in the philippines. some people who have been risking themselves but also very generous with their times and showing solidarity with the people they are. we do try to rotate staff and an out and take care. unfortunately, many of us know if staff members who similar to the situation in darfur have died of cerebral malaria. it is an issue we continue to monitor, but appreciate your concern there. you also mention an issue of trafficking, are we doing enough? i would say my answer to that always is no. i don't think you can do enough in the trafficking field. one woman, one child that is missing. we saw this in haiti. i thought in india when we went to one of those are the sites after people came out to me and said, do you want a child? we need to continually do more. the fact this committee has raised this issue that you've

highlighted them to put a on it is an opportunity for us to raise the issue. i know ms. steele is interest in this area and that is something they can hide light rays that with the filipino government. i would also say the issue of the children, two things that we found have been helpful in haiti and in syria. one is a child friendly space that you can go and have children in areas where they can have safety, where they can play games and where they can do things that they feel like children again and feel protect it. that is one area that can help. there is recognition among the church actors that we talked to already been people in the communities. trauma is the issue not only for children, the caregivers, for the clergy they are. was sitting in the super cyclone. we talked to people sitting with polls, holding up the wall says

the roof was torn away and someone came to assist them and was whipped by the wind, thrown against walls. i think the poster mattock stress -- we have got people into different countries in syria with the latest, we're beheaded direction and counseling for them. similarly in haiti. we are trying something out in syria with other shows for children so they can express. usually there's trying a puppet show so they can express what they've gone through. children are also resilient. if we do this at an early time, hopefully that can be of assistance. as they laugh at the pregnant women, it is the key issue. we supplement their and some of newborn babies there. big concern. we did a 2.5 hour drive to or much, which has been generated electricity. i think it is a key issue. as i said, the church is looking at the rebuilding of its institutions, both health clinics, schools, and that is a

priority as to how to protect these women. it hasn't been solved as of yet, but we will continue to raise it. >> kinder to mirror near what you said it on a different front. world vision has seen it is important to have a front-line response but the intervention such as food, shelter and water. we've done that. we have a bogey at 18,000 children in child friendly spaces right now. we are planning to scale that up. i want to say to 40,000 children. we see the character child friendly spaces helps deal with the trauma, ptsd. it also helps keep children safe. but it also helps to convey important messages such as health messaging, water sanitation messaging. we've seen this as a key mechanism for the front-line response. for that reason, we prioritize the life-saving intervention group. secondly, the risk for the

health team as a survivor of bangui, i experienced then key in sri lanka. we understand it is a horrible thing. remember shaking. it hurts. we have prioritized as an organization staff care. ..

see it happening for, let's say the short to medium-term response. we want people to have that availability of cash to start their lives again. and as far as trafficking, i would second my colleague, mr. callahan, saying no. we're never doing enough on trafficking. for that reason, world vision we came up with recommendations we would like for the group to urge usaid to urge the filipino government and the u.s. government to push for more child preace programming. we see trafficking as a problem now. it was a problem before. we have been working in the philippines on a long time for trafficking, child labor. in fact i found out before the meeting we held through community groups we actually responding to at the point in time to get over 30,000 children out of under-age work. so children who are working in factories, sweatshops and places.

they shouldn't be working. set up committees, community-based organizations for helping children to get out of that. but at the same time to identify when children are at risk. we're pushing hard for the committees to be be alert and be able to respond. so that's all i have to say. >> you and your testimony -- >> mr. chairman, just offer a word. okay. okay. just a courtesy. i just want to hollywood hearing. i won't be here in another hearing and i just stepped out. i thank my colleague for his leadership, and the ranking member. i just want to be able to work with the committee collaborate with some of the committees i serve on and just leave the points on the record. that is the response of the united states the international response. i know, part was usaid. the identification of the deceased. the reunification of families,

which i know may have been raised. i know, the issue of disease has been raised. specifically raising those questions since the pain of those individuals was clear. and then the continuing support that the united states private sector can give to the philippines. i thank you for allowing me to place that on the record. and with that, mr. chairman, i look forward to working with this committee. and my deepest sympathy to the people of the philippines and yield back. >> thank you very much. >> if i i could, you mentioned in the written testimony last week filipino authorities arrested two men for youth trafficking as the men tried to take a 16-year-old girl out to a flight. as we meet here today it's an issue i've been pushing within the organization for security cooperation, we now have an action plan, which i think will be adopted promoting the idea of training flight attendants, bus people, people on trains to spot

a traffickers and notify the appropriate individuals. i mentioned several times during the trip to officials, i'm not sure philippine airlines has any intension on doing it. which flies frequently in and out of there as does united. nancy has done work as a flight attendant and she makes the point that traffic persons need to be moved somehow. and very often internationally it's by airlines. and often if you have a trained flight attendant or flight attendants who can spot a trafficker and trafficked people the telltale signs, inform the pilot. when the plane land, arrest or at least separate and find whether or not there's a trafficking in progress. she told me that there was a pedophile ring coming out of haiti and they noticed there was something wrong. they finally investigated it, and i.c.e. stepped in and law

enforcement stepped in and broke up a huge pedophile ring operating the cover under a terrible natural disaster. where it's been done, it is cost-free. t a matter of training situational awareness, and seems to me one collective. train flight attendants and all people. you mentioned how important it is that the police with well aware. they have got to move the individuals sometime, somewhere. and they usually use some kind of public transportation. you might want to speak to that. and also, because again i think now is the critical phase when in a sense, sealed by the typhoon, with only the military coming in with c130 and the like. of it hard for traffickers to move anyone. now the roads and the bridges and the water route and the air routes are wide open. and now is the time to move

absolute earnestness to mitigate the possibility of young children, women, being trafficked. you might want to respond. >> first of all, i think it's great to see the initiative taken and the pushing to help stop trafficking. as far as different initiative. it sounds like a great many possibilities. we want to concentrate on a high level with government and with corporations. whoever is working. people working airline organizations. also for us it's almost important at the community level. the local policeman, the local mom and pop owner. the community members to be able to identify when there's a potential of trafficking and reduce the risks. so we encourage it and happy are to see at the high level and medium level, and of course at the lower level where we've been working far long time that we want to keep on reinforcing and

working in the area because we see it as a area of high-risk especially now. i just you earlier presented legislation that would have a found address us. which i think would be a great opportunity. in the case of -- i would think the most vulnerable area, would be, as you suggested the water route. we came through there was crowds and crowds of people. it would be easy to move people in. the overloading the ferries at the time. people are sit on the stairs and you hear the disasters and wonder if you're going part of one. thing the transit points highlighting some individuals that could, you know, pick them out, you know, i would think in some of these cases particularly post emergency it would be a very challenging but people that can go and -- we actually found in haiti we had a group of sisters that were chasing people "across that

bridge" and stopped people. they had a relationship with the border guards. if they came and identify something, the border guard would not let them pass. and we did not have one case where they approached someone that they weren't trying to transport someone. they took the child to the safe house the sisters were running a and protected them. there are mafia rings that go through there. i think there's a need to have some civil society along with the officials border guards, transport officials, and others so there with be a combination-type of effort. >> our hope is we raised it with the two cab innocent members. the philippines use as a model themselves every best practice practice imaginable including the training of airline flight attendant to stop traffickers. because we know they're privileged and ready to exploit.

>> we see important on the private sector, the local level and the police department and with municipal authorities. the training of those has a huge impact on let's say stagnating or limiting or mitigating to a large effect of trafficking. woe would like to encourage that even more. i point i think it's important to underscore this. the philippines know we're in this together on combating trafficking. with the super bowl coming to new jersey in 2014, governor christie and the attorney general and law enforcement, state police, homeland security, at the state level are working overtime knowing that venue becomes a mag innocent for the exploiters of women and children. and why should we think if it happens if n the glare of the

super bowl, a typhoon area has to be even a greater danger area. so we need work even more with the philippine leadership so they will do more to mitigate trafficking. >> thank you, mr. chairman. you mentioned earlier we have million children in child labor. sometimes it's a polite way of saying something akin to involuntary servitude. i would like for you to elaborate on the conditions the children are having to work in. and say a applicability more about it so i can get some sense of what we're talking about. also, you mentioned the gratefulness of the filipino people. one of the things i hear is with reference to our foreign aid is that people are not always

thankful. there seems to be a notion perhaps they're not thankful enough perhaps we should do less. we do it because dr. king was right. life is an inescapable networking of -- what is happen to people in harm's way can impact us tomorrow. we are all blessed and therefore for the grace of god especially those of us who along the guflt -- gulf coast. if you can talk about the children. and finally, i would like to mention they were helpful and knowledgeable about the issues we had to deal with. and smoke up and made some great

points about that are important to the people. not only in us but our ability to message these things that we saw. i want to give my expression of appreciation to both of them. i yield back. >> thank you very much, mr. green. people caiment up to us thank us for being there for the assistance. not just whether we were in the churches but even in an airport. people would come up. we had the opportunity they had a basketball game the two professional teams to try to raise money for the effort. the two teams happened to be the next morning on the same flight we were flying on. and each one, a they came by, shook our hands and thanked us for being there and being there to assist them.

so the recognition was there. everyone we talked to recognized the work of the united states. i'll mention a comment about the children and pass it to chris. he was mentioning some of that earlier. but i think your comment about child labor and servitude, it really, you know, for me is a matter of symantecs. there are certain tries for child labor that are quote, unquote, legal for child and others that are illegal. many of us feel that all industries should be illegal for children. but you would have them being in some. it's one thing if it's a family type of activity. in many cases it comes more to servitude that a family takes loan and the child is going to help pay it off. we see in the philippines, we see in brazil, and africa countries. the issue of servitude continues to be a big one for us as well.

>> thank you. within the philippines we have seen there are certain industries that children are involved in child labor. there's different, i mean, you think of a sweatshops. you think of the garment industry. we've seen a lot of corporations, a lot of well let's say i don't want to say corporations. i'll say companies throughout the country that there is child labor. it goes to the local level. we've by trying to focus on identifying and the industry and stop people from coming in and exploiting people. not even on the child traffic or the child labor level but on the trafficking level. we've seen people come in to the philippine from the the middle east and other areas around the world to get domestic serve vapts. they use it as an opportunity especially around times of disasters. when people are desperate for

work to say we have an opportunity for you to work in dubai and lebanon. and people are desperate. thinking it's a great opportunity. world vision is working with the local community members with the municipality, the police department to make them aware of maybe these people are legitimate. but please make sure they're legitimate organization and you're not just fall victim to be in a trafficking victim. we continue to work on the area and continue to hopefully highlight some of these challenges. especially around domestic servitude we've seen especially with filipinos. one point to that. >> i was recently on a visit to the ball kin and cypress and we found that fhfa the middle east we have centers now that some of our local partners have in lebanon. where they have somalis, they have sudanese, they havelessly lane can, they have all the people that have been trafficked from ore areas, including pill

find know. and they're in the centers and there's the attempt to try to reunify them or bring them back home. and ethiopian woman we finally got back to ethiopia. these continue to be areas where obviously when they're trafficked or put in to this child labor at times. it becomes in to more of a servitude. if transported across international lines. once you take their pass port. they're afraid they might be arrested. you need opportunity people they can trust typically in our situation it's gone to local safe houses. they've been rehabilitated there and try to work with the local embassy. there are the rings that continue to be out there. if i can follow up on that. i worked in lebanon for two years. i was seeing some of the program that world vision are working on together. and you do see people from the

philippines, somali. but ethiopia primarily and different places throughout the world. and people get trafficked. not only trafficked to the country but the passport are taken. if they don't pay back their travel loan, they're not given permission to stay in the country or not given back a pass port. they sit in jail until they are able to pay back the loan or the fees the prior feels they are owed. it's a vision cycle. we were working with the people in the prison because they were victim of trafficking and they weren't able to pay in order to get back home. we're hoping question mitigate some of the things from happening to places like lebanon, middle east and globally. thank you. >> is there anything else you like to add before we conclude? >> i would just say i think we were up off to a good start

here. i appreciate the attention, you, mr. chairman, and representative green have brought to the case by going out to the area. i think as we mentioned before, i just put that one last emphasis it's not over. the disaster hasn't disappeared. syria is getting worse and worse. we've heard today 12 sisters were just kidnapped. we have central africa republic. it's important we don't forget the philippines and let the country go down. 13 million people were affected. it needs a significant three to five year response. i think the filipino people and the filipino church and the government are ready to put their shoulders to the grindstone. i think we can do it with them they'll achieve it. if we threat go, frankly, shame on us. >> as we've heard in testimony before ours, i would like to say amen. definitely. it's you have to respond

immediately. with this people affected it's going to be a marathon. i would encourage anyone you can talk to to keep the eye on the long run. thank you very much. on that note, the hearing is adjourned. i thank you for and the organization the important work you do. thank you. hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations]

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[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] we're going take you live from the hearing room and the ray burn house office build together west front of the capitol. a couple of minutes ago the annual capitol tree was lit by john boehner. it's an 80 foot tree that comes from washington state. medicare beneficiaries have until saturday to change the medicare health care plans and prescription drug coverage for 2014. tomorrow morning here on c-span two a house hearing on what the affordable care act means for medicare. that starts at 10:00 eastern live on c-span 2. the white house today kicked off december events focusing on the health care law with remarks by president obama.

we want to get your thoughts about that on facebook.com/c-span. you can see the president at that event tonight at c-span at 8:00 p.m. eastern. as you walk in, there are tables in front with lot of pamphlets. not, you know, prior to entering the gun show and they are how the state government trying to take away the right to own gun and government is doing this and obama is doing this and bach is terrible. those are the kinds i wanted to talk to. they were the guys with the leaflet. i said to them, you know, is this your stuff? they said yeah who are you? i said twailt i'm a comeek and researcher and i'm doing research on the organizations. these ideas and trying to understand the guy -- and studying men who believe this stuff. and they, you know, most of them looked at me suspiciously and asked me questions. and i said, look, here is what i am. you know, i don't get it. so here is my job.

i want to understand how you guys see the world. i want to understand that your world view. look, you will not convince me. and not convince you. that's off the table. what is on the table, i want to understand why you think the way you do. "downward mobility." racial and gender-equality. michael on the fear, anxiety, and rage of angry white men. sunday night at 9:00 on after words. part of booktv this weekend on c-span2. the house committee on higher education held a hearing today on increasing college costs and the pell grant program. north carolina congresswoman chaired the two-hour hearing. [inaudible conversations] the the subcommittee will come to order. good morning. thank you for joining us for a hearing on the pell grant program. we have an excellent panel of

witnesses here this morning. we look forward to their testimony. this hearing is the 11th in the series designed to gain a more complete understanding of the challenges facing post secondary students and institutions. the hearings held to inform the committee of policy changes that should be considered as part of the upcoming reauthorization of the higher education act. we abbreviate hea. over the last year they provided forum to discuss opportunities to encourage enelevation, increase transparency, and enhance data collection, and enhance access and affordable. we've been fortune to hear from a number of expert witness whose testimony and insight will provide valuable as we begin crafting legislation next year strengthen america's higher education system through hea reauthorization. with roughly 71% of

undergraduates receiving some form of federal financial aid, simplifying the complex system of grants, loans, and institutional support program remain a central goal in our reauthorization efforts. just last month, the committee disdiscussioned proposal to stream line student aid programs. today we build on the conversation by examining the pell grant program, which many consider to be the corner stone of federal student aid. when the pell program gaunt in -- providing financial assistance to help low-income students access higher education. in its first year, the program provided aid to 176,000 students. since then, it has grown dramatically. more than 9 million students steady are pell grant recipient. the sharp rise in pell

participation in more recent years has been attributed to several factors. one, is the economic recession, which spurred many individuals to go back to school to learn skills needed to compete for today's jobs. also, washington policy makers passed legislative changes to pell to increase the program's maximum grant award and weaken student eligibility requirements. allowing more students to receive larger pell grant awards. since the program guarantees aid to any student who meets the el jinlt criteria, enrollment spikes threaten the pell program's long-term fiscal viability. it's one of the federal government's largest education expenditures. costing taxpayers about $30 billion a year. as with every federal program, especially one with such a haft price taught washington to ensure it's effective.

there's concern among members of the higher education community and many of my colleagues in congress that pell has strayed too far from the original intent. with such a large recipient pool, some worry the program could eventually become insolvable leading to a lack of funds for our neediest students. budget experts who projected multimillion funding gap raising additional questions about whether the current program is fiscally responsible. recognizing the program is on unsustainable path leaders in higher education, business, and public policy have begun circulating proposals for reform. one proposed first step to strengthen the program is to simplify the pell grant application process. it has been suggested that instead of forcing families to complete overwhelming amount of paperwork, stream line process better inform opportunities of

options and generate a more accurate reflection of their financial needs. a lot proposal suggests additional appropriates suggest tightening eligibility requirements. increasing grant flexibility, and implementing accountability measures to ensure the program is not only helping the neediest students enrolling in college, but also rewarding and encouraging those who make progress toward completion. when hard-working taxpayer money is being spent, taxpayers deserve accountability, which means it is critical that we have the information necessary to know what is and is not working in the pell program. the pell grant program has become the epicenter of our nation's financial aid system. we all want to make sure that it meets its targets of supporting low-income students who wish to earn a college degree. however, we must also be honest about the challenges facing the

program, and work together in good faith to enact smart policy changes that will help get the program back on stable ground. ..

often times cutting it at least 50% to try to get more money to go to the war in iraq. i wasn't happy with that. we got it back up to 3,000. in the past several years, democrats have fought to make college more affordable by increasing the total grant award by $1,600 for 4,050 in 2006 to the 5,435 in 2013 allowing it to increase yearly with inflation. before we hear from our distinguished panel of witnesses i want to underscore the importance of the federal program to program in advancing college access and portability. serving approximately 9 million hard-working students, the federal health grants program is the single largest source of

federal grant aid which supports college students. the chancellor's that came to visit during the period that i was the chairman of the committee said those were the highest priority as they had and that it was to make higher education, affordable accessible and that we should look very carefully at increasing the power granted. an estimated 92% of the pell grant recipients have family incomes below the national median of 5800. more than 60% of the graduates and half of latino undergraduates rely on programs to afford the cost of the college degree. programs strengthen the economy and boost workforce productivi

productivity. it can increase employment and wages and move into students into the middle class. while ibm proud of the federal investment congress has made in the federal program and in recent years through the passage of student aid and fiscal responsibility act of 2010 and the college cost reduction and excess costs of 2007 i know the congress can do much more to support college access and success. unfortunately, recent budget agreement have reduced the funding by more than $50 billion by cutting hundreds of thousands of students from the program. many other changes with other federal student aid programs to fund the total grant program. we can do better than robbing peter to pay paul. the republican majority wants to

eliminate hundreds of thousands if not millions more students from the program to program by cutting $98 billion by that program allowing. to be sure, students have continued to struggle to afford the cost of a college degree. skyrocketing college costs in recent years have eroded the purchasing power of the pell grant forcing the recipients to increase. the reliance on student loans. the maximum hellbent award of $5,785 will cover the smaller share of college cost in this part of the program. it's troubling today to note that program to recipients are already more than twice as likely as other students to have student loans.

in closing i want to see that as the congress is working to reauthorize the higher education act, i urge my colleagues on both sides of the idol to value the program to program as a piece of the larger budget discussions and not to limit themselves to solving short-term funding problems with long-lasting cuts to student aid. with that i yield back. >> thank you mr. hinojosa. all subcommittee members will be permitted to submit written statements to be included in the permanent hearing record. without objection, the record will remain open for 14 days to allow statements, questions for the records and other extraneous material reference during the hearing to be submitted in the official record. it is my pleasure to introduce the distinguished panel of witnesses serves as the president and chief executive officer of the national

association of student financial aid administrators. but robinson is the director of outreach at about john w. center for higher education policies, a nonprofit institute dedicated to improving higher education in north carolina and in the nation. mr. michael serves as the director of higher education and education finance policies at the education trust. mr. richard is currently the financial aid director at the community college public two-year institution located in maryland. before i recognized you to provide your testimony, let me briefly explain the system. you will have five minutes to present your testimony. when you begin, the light in front of you will turn green. when one minute has left the light will turn yellow in wintertime is expired, the light will turn red. at that point i would ask that you would wrap up your remarks

as best as you are able in after you've testified, members will each have five minutes to ask questions of the panel. i now recognize mr. justin draeger for five minutes. >> thank you chairwoman fox, ranking member hinojosa and members of the committee. as it has been said my name is justin draeger from the association of financial student aid administrators. we represent colleges and universities across the country. a member institution serves 90% of all federal student aid recipients. i'm grateful to be able to talk about the program program which has been pointed out serbs 9 million students annually and over its 41 year history is benefited over 60 million students. the program is well targeted and that 85% of recipients have family incomes of less than $40,000. 50% of those seeking power grants have family incomes of less than $20,000. and it's weighted towards those with the least resources, 70% of

the recipients are ceding the maximum award for their enrollment status. the color and program is all about the basic educational opportunity grant in 1972. and the goal was very simple. it was to provide a prequalified students with access to a postsecondary degree. and in 1980, it was renamed programmed in honor of senator claiborne of rhode island, a longtime champion of higher education access. in its early days, it provided nearly universal access to the secondary education. its original grant of $1400 covered approximately 70% of the cost at a four year school. and it grew over the next couple of years to cover 85% of the cost of attendance at a four-year public. while the maximum grant has gone from $1400 to now over $5600 it's now only covers 35% of the cost of attendance at a four-year public school.

over that time the number of students into total amount spent on the program have also increased dramatically. i have included in my remarks dollar amounts and a list of eligibility requirement changes that have been made in the recent years for your reference. the higher education landscape is also quite different from when it was first created including the large-scale growth and the nontraditional student population where the nontraditional students have now become the traditional student. the need and the amount of the developer to lead remedial education that is being required in the higher education, the rapid expansion of innovative learning models and the need and enrollment in the vocational education. not to mention, the increased scrutiny on the student outcomes is notably highlighted by the presidents recent proposals to tie the student aid to student outcomes at the institutional level. with that changing landscape in mind i would like to offer the committee three suggestions for the reform.

the first is to provide a promise as an early commitment program from the government to students early in high school. this type of program has been successful in state-run programs and shown to change student behavior helping them make smarter decisions in secondary education to prepare for college. in indiana for example the number of students but circulating the college increased by nearly 90% over one generation over 18 years into the scholars program to read the disparity between the college on that of low-income and upper income families is quite staggering. and when researched most low-income students either do not prepare or do not have attending college because they didn't know and they didn't be lead for student aid funding would be available to them. in many instances the data shows the lack of knowledge or confidence that the funds would be there for them to leave them to inadvertently choose schools that may be more expensive or that doesn't match their academic preparedness and this

is sometimes called under matching. the funds they could draw from as needed until the students completed the program or simply ran out of eligibility. the program would eliminate the gaps when they would run out of the eligibility age summer after taking the fall and winter. but also match up nicely with some of the new innovative learning models that are being introduced. prior learning assessment and competency-based education programs. such a program would be best suited if we move to a prior-year assessment or family's ability to pay for college as opposed to the usenet whicusenow which is simply a prr assessment. finally to provide a super to te students had enrolled the graduates to graduate within four years. to facilitate in a traditional model for 15 credit hours per semester. it would eliminate many students

and busts specifically the nontraditional students from working, borrowing or scoping out which stops out at 95% of some community colleges. thank you for the virginity to talk about the power grant progy and i look forward to working with the committee in this regard. spirit think you very much doctor robinson ur recognized for five minutes. thank you for the upper committee on my own behalf and on behalf of the center. programs faces two serious problems today. first the increase in the cost to the taxpayers and its failure to serve students well. too few students graduate. by returning the program it's possible to trim costs while improving student success and access.

in 2012 over 9 million students received for grants. awards totaled more than $33 billion. 35% of all u.s. students receive some form of programs. since the creation of the program participation has grown more than 4500%. much of that consists of middle income students. 8% of the recipients come from the families whose income is higher than the national median and 60% of the recipes come froe from families above the federal policy threshold. it may seem ironic these income students do not in general benefit from programs. students from families earning 25,000 to 55,000 others who $55e programs are actually less likely to graduate the non- recipients with the same income. for low-income students the opposite is true. recipients are less than $25,000 or more likely to graduate and the non- recipients with the same income. in short, tall grants help

students achieve graduation. but they do not improve graduation rates for the middle income students. programs also were text for students with strong academic backgrounds. they took a rigorous curriculum in high school with 87% compared to just 57.6% for the grantees without a rigorous curriculum. recipients with sat scores between 400 to 800 graduated at a rate of only 34.2%. the 11421500 out of the 1500 graduated at the rate of 73.7%. similar differences are seen when high school gpas of the grantees are prepared. we have several recommendations. first and foremost it can be evaluate the effectiveness and the second we need to make sure the public can have access to the data. for the better data to just

start. whose income falls below 183% of the federal poverty meet a policy level for qualification for programs such as medicaid. with a simple cut off, the process can be simple type. eligibility can be turned with five or six questions in turn of the long form but students face today. for students who are not very low-income that can be turned off that extent. they are then dropping out of their courses. one positive example comes from north carolina from central piedmont community college. they've implement acceptable policies to do just that. they don't disperse grants until after 10% of the semester has been completed. they make sure the students stay

around and limit what can be purchased with financial aid. next to the grants should go to students who are prepared to the challenge of college work. academic requirements for initial and continuing eligibility should be heighten heightened. one option to do so is to match academic standards set by the athletic association which requires first-year athletes to be completed high school courses and requires students to have taken the sat scores based on gpa. such a policy would focus on the students most likely to succeed and give them an incentive to better prepare for college. the grant amount should be leaked to the enrollment intensity. students that received the maximum should take 15 credit hours, not 12. this can be cut coupled with the concept introduced by the association of student financial aid administrators on a 12 month schedule rather than the

academic year. they face serious challenges that we can meet the challenges with better data on financial planning and student accountability. thank you. thank you for being so good about being on time. mr. dannenberg i recognize you for five minutes. >> thank you. i have three basic message is for the committee. first pursue a balanced approach in long-term funding gaps in the program and 30 leverage the end eight and college fertility and completion to make the pilgrimage prevent more impactful i'm a recipient whose first-generation college graduates. i'm one of many success stories. there are many that have overcome far more significant than i've accomplished far more which is why it leads me to the first point of treading lightly. it's been very successful. forty years ago the percentage

of low-income students who were pursuing a higher education was less than half of the percentage today trade we've cut the gap between the low income students and other income students in pursuing higher education by 40% of those years. millions have been with access. i think it's important to keep in mind representing 90% of the recipients have incomes of less than $50,000. thirty to $50,000 after you add up the grant and scholarship aid, whatever they expect you to pay out of your pocket, they still have an unmet need of $11,000 to pay for one year of higher education. and that certain need with loans, additiona and additional, eating ramen noodles the point is the students are on the edge. if you cut the program funding the students that are in the 30 to 50,000-dollar range, you have two major risks.

they will pursue higher education in the second is as mentioned a number of students who are eligible academically prepared to go to a four year institution will instead match down to two year institutions where all things being equal, they are substantially less likely to complete. second message, the long-term funding gap i think the balanced approach is appropriate and one that targets the spending reductions in areas that will not be linked to the needy students directly and pursue the revenue enhancement on the revenue side. i've listed a host of offset options in my testimony. i'm just going to throw out one with respect to the targeted spending reduction. right now if a student leaves higher education towards the term is up. the student received pell grants but right now the rules are very loose. once the student than 60% of the

term to school gets to keep 100% of the money. if they drop out and do not notify the school when they are dropping out, the school gets to assume the student was there 50% of the time and keep 50% of the money. if you tightened up the return of the title iv rules alone is upwards of $10 billion to be saved to read like i said we have a list of offsets included in our testimony in number of them are on the revenue side and in terms of increasing the revenue to the pilgrimage program. which brings me to this message. leveraging the state and institutional aid in support of improved college completion and for the ability. state aid is the number one driver of increased college tuition. as justin mentioned, the preparation is the number one driver of college completion the players overall major but still small but still financially.

if we can incentivize states at least it brings the policies that ensure that low-income students can pursue higher education with a debt-free guarantee or low tuition as mentioned in indiana which is a model program but it can dramatically improve the college completion and reduce college costs. i want to be clear that this isn't some sort of pie in the sky idea. i worked for congress a long time. congress has a history of consolidating programs, targeting programs, delivering the aid in lump sums. we would suggest doing that with respect to a number of higher education programs, loans, grants, tax benefits outside of the program. outside of the unsubsidized ones delivering that money to the states, then what's the states do what they think is best in order to achieve the type of outcome that they have in indiana. imagine being able to say to an

eighth-grade student if you work hard in high school would guarantee that you can go to a four year -- you can go to a college -- you can go to a public college of your choice with your state at the very least without incurring any new debt. that type of promise as possible. students that have the talent and the desire to drive the postsecondary education should be able to do so without being hindered by the inability to pay. that was the vision 40 years ago. i still think that it's right to do. >> thank you mr. dannenberg. mr. heath coming you are recognized for five minutes. >> chairwoman fox, ranking member hinojosa and members of the committee. i'm pleased to be here today to present his testimony on behalf of my institution. on behalf of the 17 professional financial aid staff at my institution, and the nearly 6,000 color grant recipients

that we are currently serving we are happy to engage with the committee on how we can improve the color grant program especially in the area of increased flexibility for the nontraditional students encouraging completion, defining and identifying the media students and eliminating fraud and abuse. with almost 1200 community colleges nationwide and the lanes of recipients, these topics are of high importance and extremely relevant to the institutions and students today. increased flexibility for the nontraditional students, many nontraditional students determine their best options are to take less than 12 credit because of family and work response of these. the color grant should be flexible enough to pay for those credits only. currently if a student is eligible for the maximum for granted that is registered for buying credits he receives the same amount as the student

service for 11 credits. students in the scenario are using up their lifetime eligibility but not earning the most credits allowed. they are not able to attend full-time. more flexibility in this area would be a win-win. for the nontraditional student, they would be pursuing their educational goals at a pace that sets their own time commitments and the taxpayer wouldn't be paying for credits that are not yet heard. encouraging completion. maryland has recently passed to the college and career readiness and college completion act of 2013 through sb 740. a summary on this initiative can be found at the website for the maryland association of community colleges. this initiative takes significant steps to better prepare maryland students for

college and encourages completion once they get there. they were still a large number of state with no such progress. colleges have dated indicating the students that need more than two developmental classes have a significant drop in program completion and it follows that the more developmental classes required, the program completion rate drops. maryland law attempts to decrease the need for developmental education on the college level. simplifying the process for defining and identifying the students. we know who the needy students are and we can identify them as early as middle school and certainly by grades ten through 12 as they are a means test in place to identify those that qualify subsidized meals in the public schools.

the recommendations noted in my written testimony are part of the report for the reauthorization task force of which i was a member those that i highlighted would have a positive impact on college access through all of the title iv programs and allow students that have or whose families have already demonstrated the high means to reduce the need for the separate financial aid application or at the very least further reduce the number of questions aimed at determining the financial ability to pay. in the interest of time, i would direct you to those seven recommendations in my written testimony which is adopted and would make a significant contradiction to defining and identifying the media students. eliminating fraud and eliminating abuse. i bega begin with a premise that administrators are committed to ensuring that all students

legitimately pursuing higher education have access to the funding they have been the term and to be eligible to be received. at the same time, the administrators have the responsibility of preventing those who are not eligible for receiving any amount of financial aid. like other federal programs subject to fraud. compared to other programs, fraud an in the pilgrimage progm is relatively minimum and the number of cases and dollar amounts the core attention somewhere between making the process simple and quick for students asking enough questions to determine eligibility and prevent fraud. eliminating the possibility for fraud per student for potential students acting with cruel intentions to access federal funds using either fraudulent information or the stolen identity information of someone

else is a highest concern to financial aid administrators across the institutional types and mission goals. the goal is to eliminate fraud in the programs while at the same time insisting the vast majority of students who are pursuing their educational goals legitimately. identity theft is a problem in a category by itself. along with identity theft the administrators are cognizant of the intent to separate documents that are fraudulent with a claim of having little or no income. academic attainment for high school and/or college and medical documentation to support the appeals and exaggerated family size or number of family members and college residency status and other documents types that have determine eligibility for federal funds. the department of education has been highly cooperative and responsive to the concerns and has taken steps over the last few years to help institutions take preventative action

including systematically identifying files that have unusual enrollment patterns into significant use of color grant eligibility and high amounts of loan debt electronically notify the office an in a follow-up is conducted to determine if they are in fact they say they are if they are pursuing identification on the goals or if they are someone trying to take advantage of the system and just use the federal funds. >> if you can wind up, please you are almost two minutes over. some of the recommendations have been implemented yet we still see numbers of students that attempt to fraudulently obtain federal aid. >> thank you very much.

i want to now recognize the chairman of the higher education and workforce committee mr. kline for five minutes. >> thank you madam chair into the witnesses for being here. you are quite excellent. how does your idea looking at your testimony would require students to take the azt or the sat and meet the threshold scores based on the gpa. i listened to the testimony and you talk about how you have a greater success rate if they have had a high school education and so forth. i do not understand how this would work for the millions of what we are still calling nontraditional students, people going back to e